The news from the Tehran and the United Nations today is that Iran has stopped its most sensitive uranium enrichment work. It's part of a deal with world powers to ease worry about the country's nuclear program. It also clears the way for a partial lifting of sanctions. To hear more about this story from the BBC's Matthew Price, click the audio player above.

For the past two years, Syrian rebel groups have been fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The conflict forced more than 2 million Syrians to leave their homeland and seek safety in other countries. Neighboring nations such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt have been the prime recipients of the Syrian refugees. But now, increasing numbers of refugees are being settled in European countries.

The BBC’s Matthew Price recently met with one Syrian family arriving in Vienna, Austria. The family left Syria a year ago and had stayed in Cairo and then Libya, where mounting instability made the parents and their two children risk taking a boat to Lampedusa in Italy. Later, with the help of the Red Cross, they went on to Austria, where they have now applied for asylum.

Matthew asked about the family's journey and hopes for the future. Stability and educational opportunity are main priorities.

]]>Tue, 29 Oct 2013 19:57:05 GMTWhy do we care who heads the IMF?http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/bbc-world-service/why-do-we-care-who-heads-imf

CHIOTAKIS: In the wake of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's resignation, there are new rumblings about who will replace him as head of the IMF. The odds-on favorite is France's Christine Lagarde. But now Mexico has submitted a name. The BBC's Matthew Price is with us from Brussels on why there's so much jockeying for the top job.

Hi Matthew.

MATTHEW PRICE: Great to be with you Steve.

CHIOTAKIS: Tell us a little bit about Christine Lagarde. What is she known for in France?

PRICE: Well, in France she's known as the first woman ever to become a minister of economic affairs in a G8 economy. She's a lawyer by trade. She actually worked in the U.S. for around 20 years. She speaks fluent English and Forbes magazine ranked her the seventeenth most powerful woman in the world in 2009. So she is a formidable figure.

CHIOTAKIS: What about the emerging economies. We have this person from Mexico who perhaps is a candidate. What can they bring to the table?

PRICE: Yeah, Agustin Carstens. He's their central bank chief. And I mean I think the emerging economies would sale, look the thing they bring to the table is they are a change from the past. Why should the IMF always be headed by a European when you have a much more diverse world economy at the moment. And you have certainly many of the emerging economies appearing to be in much greater financial shape than the already emerged economies.

CHIOTAKIS: Bottom line does it really matter Matthew?

PRICE: I think it probably doesn't if the IMF is led in a purely technical way -- a very balanced, objected manner. But European leaders are saying it does matter. They say Dominque Strauss-Kahn was a fantastic head of the IMF for Europe because he understood culturally and politically what Europe was going through with its sovereign debt crisis.

TEXT OF INTERVIEW

STEVE CHIOTAKIS: France has been grappling with budget cuts as well. One of the ways the government says it can save some money is by raising the retirement age to 62. A vote could happen this week. The proposed hike in retirement age has caused a lot of workers to take to the streets. There've been riots in Paris and a blockade of France's largest oil port in Marseille. The BBC's European correspondent Matthew Price is outside Marseille airport where hundreds of workers earlier closed the access road. Hi Matthew.

MATTHEW PRICE: Good morning, Steve.

CHIOTAKIS: How disruptive have the strikes been so far?

PRICE: Well, at the airport they were pretty disruptive this morning for a couple of hours. All the flights still took off, even if it was more difficult for passengers to get to the terminal building. I don't think Americans, though, would accept what's been going on over here. The rubbish has been piling up in the streets in Marseille. The refuse workers have been on strike so there's the stink of decaying fruit and old coffee grounds around the city -- the old city. Ships and tankers are moored off shore on the crystal blue waters of the Med. They're at anchored. They are unable to get to the port because workers at port are on strike. The fuel depots are affected so many gas stations are closed. It's not a pretty picture.

CHIOTAKIS: Marseille, Matthew, has the country's biggest port. What's the impact on the French economy?

PRICE: Overall, President Sarkozy of France says it's pretty significant. And he fears that if this continues that jobs will be lost as a result. European countries, like the United States, have fuel reserves so France isn't about to grind to a halt. But this isn't good for the French image of course at a time when it would like to attract more foreign investment. All E.U. governments say they need to cut spending, so if the wider affect of these strikes is to derail the French policy of trying to cut their budgets then there could be a weakening of the markets view of the French economy as a whole.